1994: Mateo Santos moved with his family
to Pine Valley when his eldest sister, Maria Santos, married Edmund Grey.
Mateo loved living on his San Antonio farm and found it very difficult
to adjust to life on the Eastern seaboard.

1995:
Mateo met Hayley Vaughan on her wedding day to Alec McIntyre. Hayley was
wearing her wedding dress. Only, she was not at the church. Hayley had
left Alec at the altar. Mateo offered Hayley a shoulder to cry on. Mateo
encouraged Hayley to go to Alec with her reservations about their marriage.
Though Hayley would elope with Alec, she became concerned about her husband’s
behavior. She confided her concerns in Mateo. He agreed to help her resolve
her marital issues. One night, they caught Alec attempting to murder Hayley’s
mother, Arlene Vaughan. They uncovered his affair with Arlene and his
plot to take over Hayley’s company, Enchantment Cosmetics.
Mateo’s sister, Julia Santos, was kidnapped by her rapist, Louie
Greco. Mateo and Noah Keefer took matters into their own hands to retrieve
her. Upon tracking them down, Louie pulled a gun on Noah. They got in
an altercation that resulted in Louie’s fatal fall. But when the
police arrived, Louie’s gun was missing. Noah could not claim self-defense
for the murder. Mateo would be one of the only witnesses to vouch for
Noah’s innocence.

1996:
Mateo wanted to help Julia exonerate Noah for Louie’s murder. He
and Hayley went on the run with them in Jamaica. They did their best to
keep Taylor away from Noah and Julia. The adventure caused their romance
to blossom. They returned to Pine Valley very much a couple.
Mateo met Hayley’s first love, Brian Bodine. Brian had returned
to Pine Valley determined to be with Hayley again. Mateo could not help
but to be jealous. But, Hayley assured Mateo not to worry. She only had
feelings for Mateo.

1997:
Mateo and Hayley opened a new restaurant, Holidays. Mateo enlisted his
old friend, Tanner Jordan, to help them with their upstart. Mateo had
always thought Tanner to be his best friend. But, Hayley was uneasy around
him. On the day they were to marry, Hayley revealed that she had slept
with Tanner. Hayley left Mateo at the altar.
Mateo had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Tanner would
betray him. One night, he followed Tanner and Hayley to a cave. There,
Tanner attempted to bury Hayley alive for rejecting his affection. Mateo
silently listened as Tanner revealed how he had drugged Hayley into thinking
they had an affair. To save the woman he loved, Mateo shot his best friend
dead. At the hospital that night, Mateo and Hayley finally married.
Julia came out of witness protection briefly to be with Mateo. Julia voiced
her concern over Maria’s death in the TransGlobal flight. Mateo
did his own look into the cause of the crash. When it was originally linked
to an engine failure as a result of poor maintenance, Mateo sought out
the person in charge on the airlines. That person turned out to be none
other than his new father in law, Adam Chandler. But, a further investigation
exonerated Adam as having any role in the crash after it was linked to
a device that exploded while the plane was in the air.

1998:
Mateo worried about Hayley’s welfare when the Chandler’s became
the target of attacks from a madman named Lee Hawkins. Lee rigged the
furnace at Holidays to explode with all the Chandlers inside. Hayley pursued
Lee on her own when he kidnapped her little brother, JR Chandler. While
being held hostage, Lee gave Hayley a tattoo with toxic paint. The doctors
told them to hold off on their plans to have children.
Mateo and Hayley planned a vow renewal ceremony at Wildwind. The ceremony
had a surprise guest, Mateo’s first love, Raquel Dion. As teenagers,
Mateo and Raquel foolishly eloped. Raquel revealed that she never filed
their annulment papers. Hayley and Mateo were not legally married. Raquel
had one more surprise: they had a child, Mateo “Max” Santos,
jr.
Mateo wanted to end his marriage with Raquel, but still be a part of his
son’s life. Adam paid off a judge to give Mateo primary custody
of Max hoping the situation would estrange his relationship with Hayley.
Max did not adjust well to life at Wildwind. Mateo reluctantly allowed
Raquel to move in.

1999:
Hayley and Mateo planned to open a new salsa club, The Sounds of Salsa.
The couple was at peace as long as they were working. Raquel was injured
when a scaffold fell on her. Though they were now divorced, Raquel moved
in with Mateo to recover.
Hayley was fed up with Raquel’s games. Raquel arranged for Hayley
to loose Max in the park. Mateo warned her that anymore plots who mean
the end to their unique living arrangements. In the end, Hayley moved
out. Raquel made another move on Mateo, but he brushed her off. They finally
came to a new custody agreement, and Raquel returned to San Antonio.
Mateo was suspicious of Hayley’s continued allegiance to Ryan. Mateo
wrongfully thought that they had slept together. Mateo fired Ryan from
SOS, and sold Hayley’s half of the business to Adrian Sword. Mateo
even entertained a romance with one of his waitresses, Tina Harding. As
a final blow, Mateo took a shot in front of Hayley, a recovering alcoholic.
Hayley collapsed of exhaustion. Mateo tried to visit her, but Adam would
not let him in the hospital room. Mateo felt like he was to blame for
Hayley’s condition. He confessed his love to Hayley as she lay sleeping
in her hospital bed.

2000:
Mateo and Hayley reconnected at the Crystal Ball. On the set of her show,
The Wave, Mateo surprised Hayley with a proposal. With nothing standing
in their way, the couple made plans to marry.
The couple’s happiness was overshadowed by the sudden arrival of
Hayley’s mother, Arlene. Arlene was back into her bad habits. Mateo
feared for his fiancée’s sobriety. After she showed up drunk
at their engagement party, Mateo banned her from coming to their wedding.
Still, Arlene crashed the party. She revealed that she and Adam had tied
the knot on the same day.
Mateo was one of those drugged with Libidizone at the IncredibleDreams.com
launch party. He hooked up with Arlene thinking she was Hayley. When Hayley
caught them, she began to strangle Arlene. Mateo thought Hayley had killed
her mother. But after the effects of the drug wore off, neither of them
could find Arlene’s body.

2001:
Mateo knew something was wrong with Hayley since the incident on Fidelity.
Mateo caught Hayley acting like Arlene. She had taken on her dead mother’s
persona to deal with her death. She was even drinking again. Hayley was
taken into custody for Arlene’s murder. Mateo found evidence that
Arlene was alive. He tracked her down and dragged her back to Pine Valley
to exonerate Hayley for murder.
Hayley and Mateo learned they were finally expecting a child. After some
complications, Lorenzo Hector Santos, or Enzo, was born.
Rosa wanted to attend Pine Valley High School for senior year. Mateo agreed
to allow Rosa to live with him and attend public school as long as she
took a job at SOS to stay out of trouble. Mateo found out Rosa was in
an abusive relationship with a drug dealer named Marcus. He had wrongly
thought Gabriel Devane was hurting Rosa.Marcus
was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the growing drug problem
in Pine Valley. The drug lord Proteus was shifting operations to Pine
Valley and wanted to use SOS as a front for operations. Mateo was forced
to send Rosa back to Texas after Proteus planted a load of drugs on her.
Mateo turned to Edmund for help. Edmund secretly launched an investigation
and told Mateo to comply with Proteus’ request. To protect his family,
Edmund arranged for one his reporters, Simone Torres, to pose as his mistress.
Simone began to have real feelings for Mateo.

2002:
Simone was secretly publishing a book about the investigation. She had
given an early copy to the publisher that named the major players of the
case. The publisher turned out to be none other than Proteus herself,
Vanessa Bennett. Vanessa sent someone to kill Mateo. Luckily, Mateo eluded
the assassin and Vanessa was taken into custody.
Mateo and Hayley faced another hurdle when Enzo was diagnosed with early
liver failure. The only compatible match on record was Maria. All the
family was tested, hopin someone would match Enzo’s blood and tissue
type. Arlene came out of the woodwork again. Hayley was open to the idea
of Arlene helping them, but Mateo did not want to risk it. Tim Dillon
proved to be a match. After the transplant, Mateo opened his home to Hayley’s
cousin.While
Brooke English launched a nationwide search for a donor, she found Maria
alive in Nevada. Maria suffered amnesia as a result of the medication
that saved her life after the plan crash. At the same time, Hayley learned
her show was being picked up for syndication. The deal would have them
moving to California. Hayley worried Mateo would not want to leave after
just finding Maria again. But Mateo wanted to be with his wife and son.
From California, Mateo arranged for Julia to pay a surprise visit to Maria
at Wildwind